TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2024
1:00 PM
- 2:00 PM
PANZACOLA F1 - 2
31: Occupant Evacuation Elevators

What happens when a hospital design involves a super tall high-rise structure that exceeds a height limit of 420 feet? In the United States, modern era building codes require the installation of a third exit stair or a design that incorporates the occupant evacuation elevator (OEE) concept. These provisions first appeared in the 2009 edition of the International Building Code (IBC) and have remained largely unchanged since that time. State or local jurisdictions that have adopted different editions of the IBC since this time have had to comply with this design requirement.
The specific requirements involving OEE are based on a mix of provisions that come from the IBC, ASME A 17.1, Safety Code for Elevators and Escalators and NFPA 72, National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code. Companion requirements from the 2012 edition of NFPA 101, Life Safety Code must also be considered for the project. Although the notion of using elevators during a fire emergency is generally a foreign concept, the code compliance path is more straightforward than one might conclude.
This session will demonstrate and discuss the approach taken by the design team to integrate the OEE criteria from the related codes and standards, including specific local amendments to those documents that are applied in New York City.